Nov 20, 2007 8:00 AM

The legacy of Franklin D. Murphy

When billionaire J. Paul Getty unexpectedly died in 1976, the trustees of an ocean-front Malibu museum named after him were stunned to discover that he had bequeathed the museum more than $750 million in stocks — a sum larger than the combined endowments of all the other major museums in the nation.

Realizing that such an enormous bequest had to be wisely spent, one of the trustees called Derek C. Bok, then-president of Harvard, in the hope that he could suggest someone with the experience and expertise to help devise art education, conservation and research programs for the museum.

Bok offered the name of one man: Franklin D. Murphy, chancellor of UCLA from 1960 to 1968. A cultural icon of Southern California, it was Murphy who outlined an ambitious plan for what would eventually become the Getty Center, one of the nation's great institutions dedicated to preserving Western art and culture.

"He may have done more to shape the cosmopolitan, cultural image of Los Angeles than any other person of his generation," writes noted biographer Margaret Leslie Davis in her recent book, "The Culture Broker: Franklin D. Murphy and the Transformation of Los Angeles." The first full biography about Murphy, it focuses on his extraordinary career.

Murphy's numerous achievements as chancellor over eight years have been well documented at UCLA — among other things, he developed a program of interdisciplinary institutes and study centers, restructured the arts school and established the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. In her book, Davis deftly chronicles some of the wider cultural, educational and corporate priorities that Murphy pursued over three critical decades in Los Angeles.

On Nov. 18, Chancellor Gene Block and his wife Carol hosted a gala celebration of Murphy's rich legacy to mark the 40th anniversary of the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden and the publication of Davis' book by University of California Press.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1916, Murphy trained as a physician — like his father, grandfather, brother and son. At age 35, he became the president of the University of Kansas and went on to forge enduring relationships with some of the nation's top business tycoons — Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Ford II and Howard Ahmanson, to name a few.

As a corporate leader, Murphy channeled numerous philanthropic contributions into cultural institutions of his choosing. "He was hugely ambitious, extremely competent and had an uncanny knack for linking donors to important causes," Davis said. As a board member of the Ahmanson Foundation, to cite one of many examples, Murphy was instrumental in preserving an astounding legacy that provides tens of millions of dollars in grants every year.

Murphy was also a skilled people's manager. "Just about everybody I interviewed talked about his ability to solve a problem in the hallway or soothe bruised egos through a discreet phone call the next morning," recalled Davis.

At a 1992 banquet in Murphy's honor, Vartan Gregorian, then-president of Brown University, aptly summed up Murphy's civic influence. "He will go down in the annals of this city as one of its great conspiratorial benefactors," Davis quotes Gregorian as saying in her book. "He has forced all of us to make Los Angeles what it is now."

To read more about him, see www.pastleaders.ucla.edu.

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